


Tinted Blue

by empressempoleon



Category: Free!
Genre: Childhood, Gen, M/M, a sea of light that spreads endlessly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-21
Updated: 2014-11-21
Packaged: 2018-02-26 10:58:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2649479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/empressempoleon/pseuds/empressempoleon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Why is it, that when he comes into your field of vision, that the world just seems to light up, in a big burst of white that leaves you blinded for days?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tinted Blue

**Author's Note:**

> For RinHaru Week Day 1, using the Haru's POV prompt "a sea of light that spreads endlessly". Very liberally.

Why is it, that when he comes into your field of vision, that the world just seems to light up, in a big burst of white that leaves you blinded for days?

* * *

Your world is tinted blue.  
  
It’s everywhere. The water. You see it, in the eyes of the people around you, hear it in your breaths, feel it in the nippy air that bites your cheeks. Everything flows around you like an endless river, and you’re looking in at the world through a lens tinted blue.  
  
You swim through life, and you’re fine; you’re fine with the way each day drifts by seamlessly, settling for floating instead of diving.   
  
You’re fine.  
  
You’re fine, and that’s why when he shows up with blinding red hair that even your lens can’t dull, you don’t realize anything.  
  
You don’t realize that your entire world is going to change in an instant.

* * *

“Hello everyone. My name is Matsuoka Rin. I previously went to Sano Elementary School. I have a girly name, but I’m a boy. Looking forward to being in this class!”  
  
His vivid cherry hair is a startling sight within your lens. It’s bright, and it doesn’t seem muted at all by the overwhelming blue surrounding you.  
  
And that’s why you scowl at him his whole first day. It’s because he’s so red, so far away from your dull blue, and it makes you feel uncomfortable, like a fish out of water.  
  
It’s a sight you’ve never seen before.  
  
He’s a swimmer too. You can feel it, in the slight pressure he exudes, the toughness of a true competitor hidden underneath his bubbly persona.  
  
The water likes him too. You know it, because you can feel it rippling away from him in the same way it does for you; it accepts him, and it likes him, and it lets him rip it away from him as he swims past you in a flurry of bubbles.  
  
You feel so muted. He’s the same as you - same age, same class, same girly name, same love for swimming - but he’s so bright, and his eyes are so clear, like they aren’t watching everything pass by through a clouded lens.  
  
He wants to swim in cherry blossoms, and he wants to write sappy messages. He wants to swim relays, and he wants to swim with you. He’s so quixotically ridiculous, and you almost hate the way his smile is so contagious.  
  
He seems so free.  
  
And this is the moment that your world shifts.  
  
This is the moment when the center of your world isn’t you anymore.

* * *

_For the team_ , he writes, in a sloppy cursive next to your simple _Free_.  
  
And he still dares to smile that stupid, idiotic grin you’ve told yourself to hate yet grown to love, at you, like it will make you forgive him for what he’s about to do.  
  
“If you swim with me,” he says, “I’ll show you a sight you’ve never seen before.”  
  
You hate how he always changes you. How he always makes you do things you’d never do.

* * *

You almost can’t believe you’re up on the diving board right now, watching Rin’s sleek form streak through the water miles ahead of the other teams.  
  
It’s so unreal-  
  
and you have no time to think as you feel Rin, feel his fingers touch the wall-  
  
“Haru!” he screams-  
  
and in that split second you breathe and you plunge and the world turns upside down as you swim faster than you’ve ever swam before.  
  
His yell is still echoing in your ears, and you feel his touch all over your body. Rin has left a burning mark on you, and you desperately try to wash it off by swimming faster, faster, faster-  
  
And that’s when the world goes white. The water washes away and you’re floating in a brilliantly white world.  
  
You blink, and it doesn’t disappear; you’re viewing this place through clear eyes, and it’s so simply beautiful you almost want to cry.  
  
The blue has become almost smothering, but now you’re free as you hurtle through the water and turn to go back the way you came. The water is clear, and through your goggles you see the end where everyone is waiting for you-  
  
And you see Rin, with his hand held out and his stupid idiotic shark grin. He’ll pull you up and clap you on the back and probably cry a little too because he’s just stupid like that.  
  
Rin will pull you up. And he will be the one to bring you into a world you’ve never seen before.

* * *

Your hand slaps the wall and the crowd erupts into cheers. You pull off your goggles, and shake you hair, and when you look up-  
  
You see an idiotic shark grin, and a stupid crying boy holding his hand out to yours.  
  
You put your hand in his and the stadium ripples away like an endless sea of light. Rin is the only other one there, smiling and crying, and shining so radiantly you want to cover your eyes.  
  
He’s a sight you’ve never seen before.

* * *

The next day you watch an airplane fly higher until it’s out of sight through the classroom window.

* * *

Your world was clear, for a moment. For a moment your tinted blue lens fell off and you saw a vast world too big for a small ten year old like you.  
  
Rin is gone, and now they’re back on again, painting everything in a melancholy shade of lazuli. It’s pretty in its own way, but more than that, it’s comfortable. You’ve always viewed the world from the water.  
  
But you’ll never forget the way the world shined when the goggles fell off and Rin held out his hand.   
  
You’ll never forget the way he smiled.  
  
And you’ll never forget the way he shined so bright, like a drop of red paint smeared all over a blue canvas.  
  
He’s gone, but you still see traces of him lingering in your world. You view in blue, but you see splashes of red, in Makoto’s bento and in Nagisa’s eyes and in the picture of you four with your big relay trophy.  
  
Your world is colored blue, but for a moment it was a sea of light that spread endlessly; for a moment, it was a bright and clear place where the sunlight reflected on the surface of the water and you could see with no restraints, see how the world looked from out of the water.  
  
And you could see a red boy holding his hand out to you.


End file.
